Life Gets Stranger
by MagiRae
Summary: Chloe has had a great life; Warren and Max are her parents, she had a lot of friends... until her mom decided to drop everything out of the blue and move to Arcadia Bay.
1. Blackwell Academy

Just to clarify, this story follows the life of Max and Warren's daughter, Chloe.

I wake up to mom yelling for me. I sit up in bed and stretch, just usual waking up things. And then it hits me. Today is the last day of summer. Tomorrow I will be at Blackwell Academy for senior year.

I still don't understand why mom wanted to move to Arcadia Bay so much. Nobody even knows about this town. She says she just wants to go back to the place where her and dad grew up, but I think it's more than that.

I hop out of bed and get dressed and ready. I pick a light pink hoodie and some ripped jeans. I get my casual style from my mom. I get a lot of things from my mom, actually. I look way more like her than dad, but I get my long, dark brown hair from him.

I'm brought out of my daydreaming when mom yells for me again.

"Chloe! Breakfast!"

"Coming," I yell back. I grab my bag and run downstairs. I walk into the kitchen and dining room area where I see mom and dad talking across the super nice island.

The house is the only thing I'm actually happy about in Arcadia Bay. It's huge, and really nice. The kitchen is huge, functional, and modern, which mom loves. The living room is spacious as well, with a fireplace. Mom and dad both have their own offices, and all of the bathrooms are amazing. My rooms awesome too, but I'm gonna have to leave it tomorrow. I'm so not excited.

I walk into the kitchen cautiously, so my parents don't know I was running.

"There you are" mom says. "You're breakfast is on the table."

I walk over to the table and sit down. Pancakes, awesome.

"Your dad has to go in to work today, so I'm gonna take you to set up you're dorm room."

Ugh. I totally forgot about that. Guess this isn't really my last day of summer after all.

"Good thing we moved everything over there already, now we just have to set it all up." Mom explained.

"Ok," I say between bites. "When are we going?"

"Soon, about an hour."

"Okay." I get up to bring my dishes to the sink.

My dad walks over. "Okay, I got to go. Coworker just called. Bye."

He kisses my head and I look away as him and my mom kiss. That's just awkward to watch.

That's another good thing about my life. My parents still really love each other after the twenty years of marriage. And me and my parents are really close. Which is great.

My dad leaves and I go sit down in the living room. I pull out my phone and realize I have like a million texts from Em.

 _Em: ugh, first day. wish me luck_

 _Em: it's so lonely without u_

 _Em: I have mr Morris right now. I wish u were here so we could make fun of him together_

 _Em: check ur phone girl!_

 _Em: text me back and save me from my boredom_

Damn. She really blew up my phone.

 _Chloe: sorry, was eating_

 _Chloe: ik, school is gonna suck without u_

"Chlo! It's time to go." Mom shouts.

I shove my phone back in my bag and meet mom at the front door. I get in the passenger seat as mom starts the car.

"So, you excited?" She asks, trying to make conversation.

"Eh, I'm more nervous than excited."

"Yeah, I get it. I had the same thing happen to me in senior year. Moving was hard. But I'm sure you'll get used to it."

"I hope so. I still don't understand why we had to move though. Jobs weren't an issue or anything," I say, trying to get some information out of her.

"A lot of things happened to me here. That's why. Plus, Blackwell is a great school."

Ugh, she's avoiding the question again. I'll never get an answer out of her at this rate.

Mom reached over to the radio and turned on some music. She's always listened to that soulful, indie type of music. Not exactly my taste, but I deal with it.

A few minutes later we pull up at the school. Wow, it's way bigger than my old school. Probably because my old one didn't have dorms. We get out of the car and mom leads me to the girls dormitory.

"Wow," mom laughs. "It's just like I remember it, except a bit bigger."

"Oh yeah, which dorm was yours?"

"This one." She says, gesturing to one of the rooms.

As we approach my room she starts smiling. "Look, they still have the whiteboards for every room. You can write something on it."

"Hmm, okay."

I grab the marker and think for a minute. How do I want all these new people to see me? I sit there for a few seconds with the marker under my chin until I decide what to draw. The marker was blue, so I drew a butterfly. A blue butterfly. I don't know why, but I always see that butterfly in random places around me. It just felt right to have it outside my room.

Mom watches as I draw. I notice her smiling a sort of sad smile. I wonder why.

"Done," I say as I put the marker back it its holder. "Let's do this."

I push open the door and enter my cluttered room. All of my furniture is already in here, we moved it all a few days ago. This is the fun part. Decorating.

I knew right away when me and mom were picking everything out that I wanted a color theme. So all of my furniture is either mint, white, or gold.

I begin by moving my bed to where I want it. It's a twin bed with storage compartments on the bottom, and it's all white. Because of that, I chose a mint comforter with a few thin white stripes. My pillows are all mint, with a few white details. I move the bed to the wall across from the door, the front of the bed on that walls with the side of the bed on the left wall. Next to the bed, I put my white chest of drawers with my gold decor items on top of it. Then next to that, I put my white desk with a few white shelves behind it, and place some pictures and decor on that as well. My laptop with its mint case will go on the desk, along with a gold lamp.

In the next area, I open up my built in closet and hang up my mirror with a mint trim on the outside of it. Then I fill my closet with the clothes I brought, and put my socks and underwear in the drawer on the bottom of the closet. Done!

Lastly, I have my mini living area. I put my mint couch against the wall, with my white fuzzy carpet under the area. Then I move my glass coffee table with gold edges in front of the couch. Lastly, I put my white end table on the end of the couch, and put a picture of me and Em on the table with a gold frame.

I hang a few pictures on the walls that have a mix of mint and gold frames on the empty wall next to the couch and desk.

I step back to the door and me and mom look at it all. I love the colors, and it looks so clean and organized!

"I love it!" I tell mom.

"Me too, looks much better than my room used to." She laughs.

"Well," she continues. "We should get back now, have lunch."

"Ok, let's go." We walk out the door and I lock it behind me.

As we walk out the dorms and back to the car, I notice all the other students milling around. There's so many different types of people. I notice some obvious jocks and cheerleaders, by the stuck up way the carry themselves. I see some shy kids, who walk with their head tilted a bit down. I notice some social butterflies, running around excitedly talking to everybody. I could go on and on, until we reach the car.

I climb into my seat and I see what time it is when I pull out my phone. It's been four hours!?

I could tell mom knew exactly what I was thinking when she laughed at me as my eyes got wide.

We drove home, and the day continued as the majority of the summer had gone. I laid around the house, texted Em, hung out with mom and dad, and before I knew it, it was the morning of my first day at Blackwell.


	2. The Vortex Club

I hate time. It passes by so fast. Twenty four hours ago it was still summer, and now it's moving day at Blackwell.

I roll out of bed after cherishing my last few moments with this bed before I enter the hellhole they call Blackwell Academy. I sheepishly walk to my closet and pull out some clothes. I don't have a "style" yet, so I just put on the generic ripped jeans and baggy pink sweatshirt. Then I go to my vanity and brush out my long mess of hair, and pull it up into a braid that I wear over my shoulder.

I run down the stairs, ninja style, and run into the kitchen. Mom's not in the kitchen, so I just pour myself a bowl of cereal and make some coffee. I go to the table, and spot a newspaper laying on the table. Since I'm bored, I have nothing better to do so I might as well check it out.

I scan through the paper to see if there is anything that sounds remotely worth my time. Nothing. What motivated mom to move from San Fransisco to a boring town like this?

I put my dishes in the sink and check my phone really quick as I grab the keys to my car. No messages from Em, weird. She usually always texts me at like one or two in the morning. There are texts from my parents though, just telling me to have a great day and that they love me. I shove my phone back in the pocket and get into the car.

I love driving by myself, then I can listen to whatever I want to. I search through some radio stations until I stop at some new pop song. Then I start driving to Blackwell.

As I drive past everything, I look around at all the new buildings. There's some resturant over there, a doctors office over there, blah blah blah. The only thing that really catches my eye is when I drive past a diner. The thing that catches my eye is that I see mom in the parking lot talking to some old woman. Huh.

I doze off as I follow the directions on my phone. I snap back to reality once I begin hearing a bunch of teenage voices. I park at the dorm lot, and get out, grabbing my one box of extra stuff that I packed for today. It just has some extra clothes, my toothbrush, bathroom supplies, etc.

As I'm walking to the girls dormitory, I discover that walking in a crowded area with a box covering your face is not a good idea. That is especially true when I collided with someone else because I couldn't see where I was going.

"Oh, sorry!" I exclaim as we fall to the ground.

"Haha, it's fine."

I get up and brush myself off. When I look at who I bumped into I see the most beautiful creature to ever walk the earth.

Seriously. He has jet black hair and piercing blue eyes, with such a chiseled face and jawline. I could stare at him all day. I'm pretty sure my face looked exactly like the heat-eyes emoji.

"Hello?" He says, in a way that tells me he's been talking to me while I was daydreaming.

"Oh, yeah?," I say back.

Ugh I'm such an dunce. I just totally embarrassed myself in front of this uber hot guy.

"I asked you what your name was."

"Oh, it's Chloe."

"Cool, I'm Kai." One of his friends yells and waves for him. "I got to go, I'll see you around Chloe."

I watch him as he walks away. I just died a little inside. He's like my dream guy. It's safe to say I'm pretty boy crazy.

I pick up my box and walk carefully this time. I safely make it to my dorm where I set the box down next to the door. I'll unpack it later.

I take my schedule out of my pocket and unfold it. First class; Creative Writing. Room 202. I got this. I check my phone and see that I still have about thirty minutes. I might as well just go to campus and look around before class.

I shove my phone in my pocket and tape my schedule to the wall.

My first class is drawing, which starts at 10. So I have a few hours to kill. I walk out of my dorm building and try to ignore all of the eyes that seemed to be on me. This is kind of what I expected. Everyone can tell who the new kids are. I go back to the main building just to look around so I'm not completely lost when I try to get to class later. And then I spot Kai.

To my surprise, he say me too, and waved me over. I walked over and we started talking. Just normal stuff, if I was new, blah blah blah.

The only interesting part of the conversation was at the end, when he asked for my number. I just died inside. I write it down for him and give it to him. Then I walk away and see a few girls staring at me like vultures looking at fresh meat.

Oh shit, they're walking up to me.

"Hey, new girl." The first one says. She has short blonde hair and seems to be more of a talker than the rest of her friends. "So I see you've met Kai."

"Yeah..." I say, crossing my arms. "What about it?"

"Oh nothing, he's just my boyfriend. What I really wanted to elk you was that you seem so much cooler than all the other new kids."

"Yeah, way cooler. The others are so damn lame." The second girl said. This one had blonde hair too, but it was longer and darker.

"Shut up, Kathy. I'm trying to talk." The first girl said, turning back to me. "So, since you seem like one of us, wanna join the vortex club?"

"What's that?" I ask.

"Only the coolest club on campus. All of the popular people are in it. We don't ask just anyone to join, so this is kinda an honor."

"So," she continued. "What do you say?"

"Sure, I guess." I answer.

"Great! By the way, I'm Catherine, that's Kathy, and that's Sarah. We've got to go, but see you around Chloe." She said. She turned towards the doors and the other two followed her.

I might have just made a big mistake.


	3. What The Hell

After my encounter with that bitch Catherine, I realize I haven't checked my phone all day. Usually I'm addicted to that thing. I take it out of my pocket and see that Em texted me.

 _Em: first day woohoo, how's it going?_

 _Chloe: okay, I haven't started class yet tho. This school is like premature college. I did meet a really hot guy tho, and he asked for my number!_

 _Em: dang, even in a new school all the guys r still all over u_

That part was true, and I can tell it always bothered Em that guys liked me more than her. I remember in ninth grade she had a massive crush on someone, and he ended up asking me to prom. She was so mad. I turned him down though, and now him and Em are together. I have a bad feeling about him though. I don't think he actually cares about Em at all.

 _Chloe: please em, it's just one guy. He probably doesn't even like me_

 _Em: well, any other juicy info?_

 _Chloe: a few girls asked me to be in some club called the votex club or whatever. I said yes, but I can tell they r bitches_

 _Em: shoot, teacher saw me with phone, gtg_

I always feel awkward when I'm standing by myself texting. I don't know why, I just feel like every else probably thinks I have no friends and that I'm fake texting. I put my phone away and start walking to my locker. I check my slip of paper and double check what my locker number is. 173. I walk around the halls skimming the lockers until I find locker 173. It's near the drawing classroom, and I think Blackwell always puts your locker near your first class.

I open my locker and put some of my stuff that was in my bag away. The only thing in my bag now is a binder, a notebook, and some drawing supplies. I close my locker and enter my classroom.

In the classroom, there is a whiteboard, a smart board, and the teachers desk in the front. There are a few desks, by the desks are more like stations. They are really spacious, and there is only one person per station. I look at the very back of the room and see some art supplies in some cupboards.

A few students are already in their desks and on their phones, waiting for class to start. There is a small line of people at the teachers desk, probably to ask a question.

It looks like we can take whatever seat we want, so I take one by a window near the back, but not the very back. The window is so I can look out and daydream when class gets boring, and being in the back but not the very back keeps the teacher off your back. You know how the slackers always go in the back and get picked on, and the ones in the front get called on the most. So my discreet seating is so the teacher doesn't pay much attention to me. It's a trick Em taught me.

I feel my phone buzz against my leg, so I check who texted me.

 _Mom: How's Blackwell?_

 _Chloe: ok so far, I'm waiting for class to start. I guess I'm also in some club already too_

 _Mom: Yeah? What club?_

 _Chloe: vortex club. Some girls told me to join_

 _Mom: The vortex club is still a thing?! Trust me Chloe, you do not want to be a part of that._

 _Chloe: What do you mean still? And why not?_

 _Mom: They had the vortex club when I was at Blackwell, and it was bad news. The did some terrible things. I can't believe that club wasn't shut down._

 _Chloe: okay mom, I wasn't planning on actually being in it anyway. I just wanted to get those girls off my back_

Huh. I wonder what the vortex club did. I guess I can ask more about it later.

The last few students sit down, and I look around to see who's in my class. I see Kai! And Catherine. Sitting next to each other. Way to crush my dreams. Maybe it's just me, but I swear Catherine just gave me a weird smile. Hmm...

"Hello class, welcome to AP drawing. This is a class where we make you all artists, and your journey starts today." The teacher says.

A long hour later, class is about to end.

"Remember class, you're homework tonight is to talk to your parents about your name, and why you were given that name. You are going to use your stories as inspiration for your first piece.

As I walk out the door, I think about the assignment. My parents never really talk about my name, and I have no idea why they gave it to me. I walk outside the school to the courtyard to call my mom and get this out of the way.

A few rings later, she picks up. "Hey mom, I just need to know why you named me Chloe for school."

"You want to know where you're name came from?" She asks. In a way, she seems kind of nervous.

"Yeah. So what's the reason?"

"Umm, just because me and your dad liked the name. That's all."

"What? Mom, there has to be a story." I say, confused.

"Well Chloe, there's not. Not one you need to know at least." She says defensively.

Before I can respond, I see a very familiar car driving up to the parking lot.

"Wait mom, I have to go. I'll calm you back later." I hang up and I take another look at the car.

Em!?

Oh my god, Em actually came to surprise me! I follow the car to the parking lot so I can meet up with her. As she's pulling in, she takes her eyes off the road for a second and sees me. She smiles, right as a car runs straight into hers. I can tell right as the impact hits her that she's dead.

No! "No!" I say out loud. A small crowd forms around me and I hear sirens. Everything's happeneing so fast. Until I lift up my hand and everything goes back in slow motion. Wait, what!? What's happening! Before I can process what's going on, the crowd is gone and so is Em. Like the accident never happened.

I quickly glance back at the spot I saw Em's car the first time, and she's there, driving again. Alive.

What the hell just happened?!


	4. Changing the Future

Oh. My. God.

I just watched Emily die and now she's somehow back again?! What the fuck is going on?

Ok Chloe, think, think, think. There's no way that just happened. There's no way you REVERSED FUCKING TIME.

I guess there's only one way to find out if this is real. I lift my hand up the same way I did before, and the same thing happens again. Everything's moving backwards, in slow motion. The Sydney's walking around campus, Em's car...

I put my hand down and have a piercing head pain for a second after. I'm so confused. This isn't possible. There's no way.

I see Em's car coming closer the same way I've seen it happen twice. The EXACT same way. Same with everyone else.

Okay, okay. Calm down. This is somehow happening, and at least maybe I can do things differently this time. Maybe Em doesn't have to die.

Last time the car hit her when she was looking away, at me. So maybe if I don't let her see me, everything will be fine.

I run behind a bush so that nobody notices me. At least, not from first glance. I watch Emily pull into the parking lot, at right as she turns safely the car that hit her last time drives past.

What the actual fuck. Did I just change everything?

I leave the safety of my bush and run to the front doors of the school so it looks like I just walked out. I watch Em out of the corner of my eye and see her getting out of her car and walking towards the school. Then I notice her eyes get bigger. That always happens when she's excited.

I turn towards her discreetly, like I did it for no specific reason.

"Em!?" I say, acting suprised.

"Hey, Chloe!" She runs towards me and hugs me so tightly that I can barely breathe.

"Oh my god Em, what are you doing here?"

"I didn't want to tell you, but I totally lied about starting school yesterday. My family moved here, and I wanted to surprise you! Now we can go to Blackwell together!"

"Wow, I had no idea! This is amazing!" It honestly was great that she was here and I was happy, but I also had a terrible feeling about her here.

"Emily Rosewood?" The principal says, startling me.

"Yes, that's me." She says.

"Follow me, your furnished dorm has been prepared for you. I'll show tou around." The principal says.

"Okay, bye Clo!" She says as she walks away with the principal.

That's another thing about Emily. Her parents are loaded. She can pretty much ask for anything at anytime and it's there for her.

My phone starts ringing. An unknown number? I answer it anyway.

"Hello? Who is this?" I get excited because it's probably Kai.

"It's Jacob. I had to get a new phone, so that's why it's an unknown number."

Oh shit. Jacob. Emily's boyfriend who had a crush on me, and I have a feeling he still does.

"Oh, hey Jacob!" I say, trying to fake enthusiasm.

"I don't know if Emily told you, but we broke up. She was moving, so we thought it wouldn't work."

Thank god! Em and Jacob weren't good together. "Oh, that's gr- I mean, that sucks."

He laughs. "Yeah, but I didn't think we would last much longer anyway. It wasn't working out."

My phone starts ringing again. Another unknown number. Maybe Kai?

"Sorry Jacob, my phones ringing and I have to take this. Talk to you later."

I hang up in him before he can say anything and answer the new number.

"Hey, who's this?" I ask.

"Hey Chloe, it's Kai." YES!

"Oh hey Kai, how's Kathy?" I ask, with a bitter tone. Oh my god why did I just say that?

"Oh, she's good I guess? I'm not really that close to her."

"Wait what? She told me you two were a couple earlier today." I said, confused.

"Huh, I don't know why she said that. Nah, I'm single. Anyway, I have class in a few minutes, see ya." He hangs up.

That lying bitch. How did she know I like Kai? And why would she even care?

All of a sudden, I feel something flowing in my nose. Huh? I touch my skin below my nose. A nosebleed?! I never get those.

And everything goes black.


End file.
